


Necropolis

by gothikuk



Category: World War Z - Max Brooks, Zombies Run!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Gen, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-07
Updated: 2015-03-06
Packaged: 2018-03-16 16:33:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3495263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gothikuk/pseuds/gothikuk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>there is a zombie outbreak in York, North Yorkshire, and a few surviours have to get away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The outbreak

Necropolis

It was a beautiful spring evening, warm for this time of year and as the woman walked down Beckfield lane listening to Pink belt out Ave a Maria she felt her mobile buzz in her pocket.

She took it out and let one earpiece fall and answered it “hello?”

“Where are you? Ben and me been waiting for ages”

“About ten minuets away and keep yer knickers on, hard as I know that is for you with all these white vest topped no bra’s women coming in store”

“Hoi! Cheeky bitch” The other voice half laughed half scalded

“I can feel you going red now” The woman chuckled

“Bollocks how long you gonna be, there’s beer to be waiting”

She glanced to the left of her and said “Just coming past the co-op now”

“Ok Jax see you in ten”

“See yer Naimes”

She put the phone back in her jeans pocket put the song back to the start and stuck her earphone back in and carried on walking towards work. Ignoring the police cars and the ambulances that raced past her. It was not an uncommon sight this end of Accomb there was always an accident or drugs bust.

 

She got to the local Sainsbury’s and walked in waving at the Asian girl on the counter. And once she had keyed in the door key to the warehouse she walked in and shouted,

“Come on you moany gits beers a wasting”

Naomi came bouncing out the office dragging a not so sure Anne-Marie with her followed by Jenny, Vikki and finally Ben who looked a bit like the cat that got the cream as he was surrounded by women, none of them he could actually say was his but he still looked happy enough.

“Hey it’s just come over the news” Vikki said, “There’s been some sort of incident at Bootham, isn’t that where your ex is Jax?”

“She probably cried a lot, flooded the place cause no one is being her slave and going out to get her cheesecake” Jax replied not really bothered even when the others chuckled “Maybe one of the patients has gone on a rampage and cracked her over the head with a fire axe or summit”

“Stop it” Jenny smacked her arm “I’ll be pissing myself now, so where to first?”

“Well I got to go meet Lorna and Scott at the Postern Gate so could start there”

“Sounds good to me” Ben rubbed his hands together.

With that being said the group walked out the shop and across to the bus stop and onto the number 1.

 

Bootham Park Hospital was built in 1772 by architect John Carr and was the first Psychiatric hospital in the north of England although when it was first built it was called Bootham Park Lunatic Asylum.

But in today’s political climate and the world of PC it was no longer called that, it was just called Bootham Park Hospital not that it didn’t stop people calling it the nut farm or the mental hospital.

Although it was heavily secured and cameras everywhere right now there were police and ambulances all over the place, bringing out bodies that were wrapped in white sheets soaked with blood.

On ward 2b, the most secure ward in the hospital, where those that were deemed not only a danger to the public but a danger to themselves were kept one patient, a large woman with long brown hair sat up.

Being the one ward that was secure against whatever was going on outside had not yet affected their ward but the staff were panicking a little. The phones had gone suddenly dead and all that could be heard were screams of terror from the surrounding floors.

One of the nurses stopped in the woman’s doorway “Stay in your room” She ordered “Do not come out until we know what is going on”

“I want to” the woman defiantly said, “I have a right to know”

“Angela, stay where you are, the police have told us to keep you here and that’s what we are doing I am not going to stand here and argue the toss with you”

She put her head on the pillow and began to cry, the nurse threw her hands in the air and walked down the corridor telling everyone to stay in their rooms. One of the patients did not do what they were told and whilst the other members of staff were trying to find out what was going on he slipped to Angela’s room and motioned with his head.

“Hey Water Works” She didn’t move at the nickname they had all given her, patients and staff “You want out or not?”

She moved at that one especially when he waved the key that would let them out at her. She didn’t bother getting dressed, yes she would get out and go back to where her former lover lived, they could start again, everything will be fine and she will be looked after again.

As they got to the door the Staff Nurse saw what they were doing and yelled at them.

“NO DON’T OPEN THE DOOR!”

Angela flipped the nurse the finger as the young man opened the door and stared full face into the horror that awaited them.

Patients, police, medics, and staff all in differing states of death groaned. They moved backwards as the group shuffled themselves in and fell upon Angela, the youth, and the nurse.

There was no escape now.


	2. staying at home...not a good idea

Jax woke up about half six the following morning with a head that felt like it had several big bad bass drums going off at once, followed by a pneumatic drill. She was not alone in her bed and as she glanced to the left she saw Naomi and Ben sprawled across it.

Getting up and making her way to the bathroom she heard the cats running round but this was not their normal morning boisterous moment, something was spooking them and that was not a good thing.

She shook her head a little trying to remember exactly what had happened last night. In the front room Jenny was sprawled on the sofa with Scott and Lorna on the floor, Anne-Marie and Vikki had gone home.

They hadn’t gone into town after all with whatever was going off at Bootham the police had shut down the city centre so they had stopped off at the Blossom Street Sainsbury’s all using their discount cards and getting shit loads of alcohol.

Even Jax’s housemates Steve and Jan had joined in seeing as it was Jan’s day off and Steve’s it was cases of just get on with it. The X-Box had been brought into the front room and she remembered watching The Walking Dead with Jenny hiding behind her and Naomi but after that it was all an alcoholic blur,

She made her way into the kitchen nearly tripping over a hissing Nutter and went to put the kettle on then stopped. What the hell was that at the patio door? She peered out the window, there was defiantly some one there.

A large someone in pink pyjamas…long brown hair that looked half pulled out. She frowned a little her hangover banging even more and not sure if she was still half asleep.

Ally was climbing the curtain hissing away and Spot the one that her housemates had decided was her cat was now making her way up her back in a bid to get away from whatever that was in the garden.

She tried to prise the little ginger and white cat off her shoulders but her claws were dug in deep. She moved round to the patio doors to see a woman that she knew so well standing at the patio.

Her face had been half eaten until nothing showed but muscle and bone her top was ripped to shreds and covered in blood one of her breasts had been chewed to ribbons and blood had soaked the front of her pj’s turning them into a dark pink.

Jax staggered back and stepped into the cat litter trays spreading litter and cat shit everywhere. Angela banged on the window with the stump of what was a hand leaving a bloody trail on the window where she was banging it.

A smell came up and the older woman realised she had just farted with fear and mixed with the alcohol last night it did not smell so good. She looked around and scrambled into the kitchen, she found the garden fork and gripped it then went back too the patio door.

Angela was still there her mouth an open maw and one eye looked like it had fallen from its socket. Jax felt the bile rise in her throat and forced it back down, she was going to pay for that later, She ran out the room and out the front door, through the open gate and with a shout that sounded like

“DIE YOU FUCKING BITCH” stuck the garden fork into her back, pulled it out, and swiped her round the head with it.

Angela fell to the floor and Jax moved back just as Ben and Naomi peered out of her bedroom window.

“Jax what are you doing?” Ben called.

“She’s a fucking zombie!” Jax yelled. “I mean a real one not the one she was when I was with her”

“Oh come on love that’s just a – a what the fuck she’s getting up!” Naomi warned.

Jax stood over her and narrowed her eyes “Told you bitch you ain’t coming back in here!” And drove the garden fork into what was left of her face. “Told you to keep the fuck away”

She stepped back and that was when she threw up.

“Oh Eww” Naomi pulled a face “You could have done that elsewhere”

Jax finished throwing up and wiped the back of her hand across her mouth “I always said being with her was like being with the living dead”


	3. Escape

“She’s really dead then” Lorna kicked the dead woman’s foot “She’s not going to get up”

“She’s dead” Naomi assured “garden fork in face she’s dead”

“Sure you can tell?” Ben asked.

Steve puffed on a fag and cast a curious glance at the body “Surprised you can fucking tell” which brought nervous laughter from those around him.

Jan walked over to where Jax stood leaning against the wooden fence head against it breathing harshly. She had thrown up several times since the shouting had woken them all up.

Spot was still sat on her shoulder and no amount of coaxing was going to prise the little cat off. Said little cat was now nibbling her ear and purring although she was still nervous around the smell that was emanating from the corpse.

Scott who did not have one look of fear on his face lit a cigarette and took the coffee that Jenny gave him shrugged a little.

“I am sure she was a nice woman”

Naomi, Jan and Steve all looked at him incredulously even Lorna shot him a wry look.

“What?”

“Obviously you didn’t know her” Jan told him “You go wash your face love” She told Jax “I’ll see if there’s anything on the news”

Jan gently pushed her housemate into the house when a scream from Jenny made them turn to see Angela’s arm rise up.

Quick as a flash Steve picked up the shovel and preceded to cave the woman’s head in with more force then was probably nessercary he didn’t stop till the head was severed from the neck and smashed to a pulp.

“She’s fucking dead now” He looked at the stunned group “anyone want a bacon butty with lots of ketchup?”

 

They sat in the front room trying to find a news station that worked, but no matter what channel Jan put it on all they got was transmission interrupted or snowy screens, even when she put it on the sky digi box it still did not work.

Spot was now sat on the floor moving her toy towards Naomi who took pity on the little moggy and began to play with her. “I have to go see if Steph is ok,” She said as she waved the rod about and laughed as the cat back flipped to get it.

“I need to see if my kids are ok” Jenny took her mobile out of her pocket but try as she might, she couldn’t get any service. She asked if she borrow the house phone and all she got from that was a dead line. “Phones are down”

Jax finished her coffee “I have to go to the horse yard and Manor, see if Abbey and Steven are there.”

“No one can go anywhere alone” Steve sighed “and what’s disturbed me is that its half seven in the morning and there’s no traffic out there”

He was right, Salisbury road, at this time of day and last thing in the evening was usually chocked full with traffic and backed up all the way down Leeman Road. Ben sat forward and moved his glasses up his nose.

“Ok Jax, Naomi and I will head to the flat we’ll see how things are, go down to work and see if there’s any news, and Jenny I’ll come back and drive you to yours”

Jax got up and sipped a coffee with Naomi beside her. They both stared at the vets across the road and watched as a woman ran out screaming followed closely by a cat and dog that then jumped on her and proceeded to rip her to pieces.

They both did a double take and if it didn’t look so ridiculous they might have laughed but instead all they could do was stare as the dog and cat both started eating the woman who was still alive.

After a few moments they backed off and both women could tell that something had tried to make a meal out of them but they both jumped back as the woman got up and started to shuffle away down the street.

“What the fuck!” Naomi pulled the curtains across “How the fuck are we going to get out now!”

“No one leaves here, draw the curtains and don’t even let the cats out” Jax swallowed “We’ll bring some stuff back Ben how fast can you run?”

“Pretty fast why?”

“Cause there’s a car over there and if you get in it, start it and get it over here we can jump in and not have to worry about getting a mad frenzied moggy trying to scratch our eyes out!”

“Too bloody true no one going out there” Steve peered through the curtain to see the zombie woman chase an old woman down the street and jump on her “I wouldn’t mind having a woman eat me but not literally!”

“Steve!” Jan barked.

“What?”

Ben picked up the still gore splattered shovel and held it like a baseball bat, he spied the car empty by the vets entrance took several deep breaths and then ran.

 

The girl grabbed her brothers’ hand and pulled him up onto the horse that was whinnying with fear at the people that were coming for them. She was terrified but then so was her brother and they had to get out of here.

They dare not go back home just in case there were these monsters there. His school shirt was ripped but he had no bites or scratches that she could see and she herself had a couple of bruises.

“Come on Maggie don’t let me down” She whispered and with her brother holding on tight she rode her horse towards the one place that she knew they might be safe.

She told her brother to shut his eyes as they passed women and children being pulled from cars and buses screaming and crying. Abbey tried to shut the noises of crunching bone and ripping flesh from her mind and guided her horse along towards new Manor school.

As she came to the end a young woman stepped out and waved them down “Come on in my flat, quick!” She yelled.

“Can’t going to my step mums” Abbey looked fearfully behind her.

“My girlfriends with her I think they are heading this way come on the horse won’t last much longer and you may have to let her go”

“No not my Maggie!” Abbey cried.

“Kiddo my name is Steph” Steph glanced around her “If that lot come up here they will pull you off her anyway kindest thing to do is let her go and she may just get where there are no humans!”

“She – she’s right Abs” Steven whimpered “Please I want to get off the street”

Abbey reluctantly got off her horse and helped her brother down she smacked Maggie and watched as the horse, fearful of what was going around bolted she felt Steph take her hand and they ran with her brother to her flat and locked themselves inside.

Once inside Steven started to cry. This was not an x-box game, it wasn’t call of duty, this was real he had seen school friends jumped on torn to shreds, their insides pulled out like ropes of sausages.

Abbey had seen her friends reach out for her as the lower half’s of their bodies were ripped in two by former yard managers eager to get to the fresh meat and horses killed before her eyes.

She sat on the sofa and covered her eyes. Steph gave them both a drink and stood watching her work place erupt in a frenzy of slaughter and covered her eyes as cars crashed into each other their drivers eager to get away only to be thrown through the windscreens and land in a bloodied mess under wheels of trucks that too were trying to get away.

The bodies were crashed to a pulp but the drivers were hauled from their cabs by dead security guards, she was lucky she had escaped through a back exit and just run for it, she was going to pay for that later but right now she was at home and that as far as she was concerned was the safest place she could be.

 

Ben screeched away from the house with Naomi in the back seat righting herself and Jax in the front. He had found the keys in the ignition and had just bolted before the dead dogs had even seen them.

As they passed the RSPCA centre he slowed down a little and they say the RSPCA workers being set upon by dogs that frenzied and tore into them. He drove on as a giant Bull Mastiff brought its teeth down on a fallen young woman’s head shutting her screams off.

He put his foot down and narrowly avoided the car spinning across the road, the front seat passenger taking chunks out of the driver and they ducked as the sailed off the verge and crashed into the railway line, exploding as it did.

Naomi peered up to see two flame encased bodies emerge from the car and shut her eyes and prayed to something that her woman was ok, that she was safe and snapped at Ben to drive faster.

As they got to the top of Boroughbridge road and turned into Lower Poppleton Lane everything was eerily quiet. He parked up and they got out. Casting wary eyes at the tangerine factory that by now was a gore splattered pathway.

There were bodies lying over bodies and eating what they were laying over, one looked up and saw them and got up.

“Fuck run!” Jax shoved them and they ran, not needing to know why they ran as the zombie that had seen them began to move and it moved fast,

“Since when can they move fast?” Naomi breathed as she led them down to her flat.

“Since they smell food!” Jax roared, “Now move it”

Naomi fumbled with her key then pushed the door open and pulled Ben and Jax in and shut it just as the Zombie that was chasing them came round the corner and stopped.

It couldn’t see its quarry anymore and it turned shuffling back to the meal it had been eating when it was interrupted.

“Now I know what they meant by never trusting traffic wardens…pay the parking fine or they eat you!” Jax put her hand on her knees and bent double.

“JAXI!!”

She looked up as Steven and Abbey jumped into her arms sobbing their hearts out. Naomi grabbed Steph and planted a kiss on her lips. Jax glanced at Steph as Ben went to make something strong to drink. She mouthed a thank you to her and Steph nodded.

“Anytime” She whispered and took them into the lounge.

 

Sometime later after Steph and the kids were dropped back at the house and Jenny had got in with them they headed to their place of work. Beckfield Lane was a riot. Cars had smashed into each other in efforts to escape. A police car lay on its side where it had collided with a Royal Mail van.

They got out the car and stood looking at the outside of their place of work not sure if they really wanted to go in. The six shopping trolleys were on their sides around the doorway and blood caked the window.

“Who was working last night?” Naomi asked.

“Mark” Jenny muttered “Straight to the office” she ordered and with Ben pulled the door open.

They stared at the blood that caked the floor and the walls. Bodies lay all over the place in a state of decomposition and half eaten decay. Naomi pulled a face as she saw the body of Kaleda over the counter one eye open in terror the other hanging by its veins.

“Jax, grab a couple packs of cigs I think we might need one or two”

Jax punched the code in to the door and almost yelped as she saw the body of Chris she looked around for something to use, anything in case they decided to get up again but could find nothing.

She tiptoed over the body and reaching out just grabbed a handful from the shelf oblivious to what brand it was and vaulted the counter shaking as she landed.

“Chris” she whispered.

They made their way to the warehouse door just as something groaned behind them. Turning they saw one of the regulars start crawling towards them their lower half spewed across the other end of the shop and their guts were hanging out like some horror movie mutant beasts tentacles.

Ben’s fingers shook as he tried to key in the numbers but he was panicking now. Naomi reached over and punched the emergency door release then pushed Ben through the door followed by the others.

Her and Jax moved a trolley against the door and stood staring at the warehouse.

There was no one here, and that worried them, where was Mark? Then they heard it a child’s sobbing coming from the office,

Jenny entered the code and opened the door to see Anne-Marie with Vikki and their children in the office with a rather pale looking Mark.

Jenny ushered everyone out and into the canteen leaving Mark where he was with Jax and Naomi. They could see the bite on his leg and it didn’t look good. It had gone like a necros black and he was burning up with a fever that even standing by him came off him in waves of heat not unlike a summers day.

“Mark?” Naomi quietly asked and almost yelped as he raised his head from the desk.

His face was thinning and his eyes were bloodshot. Dark rings were tracing their way under his eyes and to all intense and purposes he looked like someone who had not eaten for days,

“When did you get bitten?” Jax asked silently sliding the scissors towards her.

Mark blinked several times as if trying to remember “I don’t know, happened too fast”

Naomi glanced at her and perched herself on the desk as her friend sat down on the chair across from him, She reached out and took Marks hand in hers,

“You saved Vikki and Anne-Marie and their kids” Naomi told him gently “You know what we have to do now Mark”

“Just don’t let me be one of them,” He moaned.

They waited, and with Naomi still holding his hand he died. Jax got up and waited a moment then plunged the scissors straight through his forehead. They waited to see if it had worked then dragged his body out of the office and left it in the corner of the warehouse.

 

They watched the CCTV, Ben had his arm round Vikki who like Anne Marie had to flee their ravaging husbands.

It had been a normal night up until about half nine and that was when all hell broke loose. It was a warm night so the shop was full. Mark was doing his FOA walk when a kid was dragged away from him.

The kid was no more then ten or eleven and was being devoured before his astonished eyes, That was when Anne-Marie and Vikki came in with their kids screaming as they saw the child disappear under ripping hands and teeth,

He used his handset to batter the hunger fuelled people away and got Anne-Marie and Vikki into the back then went back into the shop to try and get Kaleda only to see the man from the Indian Ocean rip her face off.

He backed off and headed towards the door roaring as the same kid that had just been ripped before his eyes bit into his leg. He half limped, half ran to the door and got in.

The rest of the CCTV just showed the store erupting into a charnel house, the outside cameras showed people in the street running for their lives being chased by things that by most movie standards should not have been able to run that fast.

Police cars sped into the street and that’s when they saw armed coppers begin to fire before they became overwhelmed.

“Where is that?” Jax asked.

Ben moved the scene back a bit and saw that it was just at the junction between Beckfield Lane and Knap ton Lane,

“That’s what we need.”

“I am not going to get it” Jenny muttered, “I need to get home.”

“You’ll need something,” Ben told her “Jax, you up for it I mean you like the zombie stuff”

“Not in real life” she muttered she pointed to the camera that was showing real time “and can’t go back through the shop”

 

“We’ll have to go through the delivery door” He said “Naimes you se us out, we’ll be back in a tick”

“Listen to fucking Bruce Willis” Jenny muttered and got up “I’m going with you”

Naomi put her key in the door and opened it cautiously so far there was nothing there and as the three left she shut the door again.

 

They moved to the corner by the hairdressers and waited then like some strange movie scene the trio began dodging in and out of cars ducking when they saw something slither or shuffle that was not a normal human walk.

Then again with some of the people that lived round here, how would they know? They made their way to the turn off to Knapton Lane and managed to get into the police van.

Ben’s eyes lit up as he saw the guns that were sat there. “Hurry it up!” Jenny hissed as the other two loaded up with weapons and ammo. Jax grabbed a shotgun and hesitated a moment. She had never really liked guns, and when her former common-law hubby had let one off in the bedroom once she had almost chewed his head off.

She shook her head off the thought; she had stabbed someone through the face with a fork, in the head with a pair of scissors so this was not any different.

Jenny moved back to be grabbed by someone that they all knew “Holy Shit!” Ben lunged for their boss but not before Jamie had pulled her down and ripped her neck open.

“Is that Jamie?” Jax muttered and racked the shotgun “Sonofabitch!”

She fired point blank and was thrown back onto her backside then cursed a thousand curses as her shoulder began to hurt from the recoil. Jamie’s head exploded like a rotten melon but Jenny was dead, although that didn’t happen for long.

Ben readied his pistol as she started to move and looked up, there was a moment of sadness in her eyes as she looked at them but that was soon gone, replaced by hunger and the need to feed.

Ben put the gun to her head, muttered “Sorry boss” and pulled the trigger.

 

Naomi watched the CCTV as her two friends came through the shop shooting anything that moved and things that didn’t move. Ben locked the shop doors and stared as the dead outside began to converge on the little store he flipped them the finger and pointed to the shopping bags.

There was no need to even think about how to pay for all this stuff, survival was what counted and if the house was going to be a place for that well they needed to stock up.

Sometime later with enough food, drink and other stuff to last a long while they all exited the back of the shop, loaded up Vikki’s car and Bens and headed back to Salisbury road.

 

Abbey and Steven were asleep on Jan’s bed, Steph was sat on the sofa and Steve had gone round drawing the curtains whilst Jan was still trying to find some news of what was going on. At the moment there was nothing but she was sure if she carried on she would find something, anything.

They jumped up as the front door opened and a group of people piled in with shopping and guns. Lorna woke up and helped with Scott as quickly as they could and got everything in then shut the door.

She looked at her mate and said quietly “I have to get to Mecca, Gemma is there and she is my sister”

“Ok well lets have a cuppa first eh? And excuse me while I go throw up what bit of breakfast I had this morning, the kids ok?”

“Asleep on our bed” Jan assured her “Come on sweethearts” She spoke to Vikki and Anne-Marie’s kids, “I’ll see if we have some pop”

 

Naomi told Jax to move her t-shirt and winced at the bruise that had formed around her shoulder. She got some anti-septic cream whilst Ben sorted the weapons out.

“Just like when you got sunburnt huh Jax” Steve grinned and then said “She screamed like a banshee if I could bottle that and sell it to the horror industry I’d make a fortune”

Despite the gravity of the situation they all had a chuckle and even the swearing southerner managed a wry smile.

“Bastard” She muttered

“I’m same” Steve retorted and caught the tobacco pouch that Steph threw him.

“What if this is all over the country?” Anne-Marie asked “I mean Jax what about your family? And yours Ben?”

The two gamers had not even given that a thought and whilst Ben was certain that his mother and sister would be fine Jax didn’t answer and to be honest she really did not want to think about it.

It would drive her insane.

 

The car screeched into Bradley Crescent and the occupants stared as a German shepherd cowered before a short woman with dark hair that was heading for her. The young woman grabbed the pistol and got out the car.

“That’s the bitch” She snarled to her brother and walked towards the woman “Hey Mary!” She called.

Her brother rolled his eyes and told the others to stay put and grabbing a shotgun he got out and called the dog “Hey Carla, come on, come on girl”

The Dog Bolted for the car and dived in, scenting a familiar scent but not recognising the figure.

“Ellie we don’t have time for this!” Kerry screamed as Mary shuffled towards her friend.

Calmly the shorter woman waited then raised her gun and put the gun against the woman’s forehead “This is for all the times you hurt my mum!” She snarled, “See what a McCarthy does when one of their own gets hurt bitch!” and pulled the trigger.

She watched as the head exploded and the body fell back a satisfied smirk on her face then walked into the house with her brother searching every room.

“That was mums former girlfriend…. Abbey’s mum?” He asked when they realised there was no one here.

“Yeah”

“Why did you take such delight in shooting her…you are evil!” He frowned.

“You don’t know half the stuff that woman’s done and anyway I think it was rather kind of me don’t you?”

She began up-ending drawers and found the address she wanted then trotted out to the car with her brother and telling her friends to drive they headed to the airfield, she gave Kerry the address and she punched it into the Sat Nav and then started again.

 

It had started in Clacton, several days ago when the mental hospital at Longwood had received a transfer from Bedlam asylum, this patient, a woman who no one really knew the history off had bitten and scratched several members of staff before being shipped up to another hospital, this time in Sheffield, then one in Leeds and finally Bootham in York.

The woman had died there but when she had come back to life she had killed several patients and staff. By that time the plague had spread across the country and the young man wanted to go find his granddad but his sister has insisted they find their mum first then go back for Granddad besides a call from their granddad had said that he was fine and they had to get to safety and to not come there.

Not that that would stop them but it was enough to settle their mind for now. They had escaped Clacton with their friends in a large car and now were going to see if their mum and her friends were still alive.

Jordan cradled the shotgun “If mums a zombie I’ll take her down” He looked pointedly at his sister “you won’t be able to do it”

“Mum is not a Zombie!” Ellie insisted, “She can’t be” she stroked the dog that was now laying with her head on her lap “She can’t be.”

 

Mecca looked like it had been entered for the worst slaughterhouse in the UK competition. York was a nightmare, if there weren’t the living dead shuffling through the ancient streets there was still survivors screaming as they got pounced on.

They had to abandon the car they had stolen near the tower and leg it all the way to the Bingo Hall and ignore any shout for help. They had heard some shots coming form the Edinburgh Arms and Jax had glanced over to see Lorraine and Dave shooting whoever was trying to get in.  
Scott, Lorna and Jax made their way up the stairs cautiously and swallowed as they saw the bodies littering the floor and the blood and brains that littered the walls and the windows..

Jax peered behind the book sales desk to see Charlotte lying on the floor with most of her side chewed away. She put a bullet in her head and grinned a little tempted to leave the sarcastic paranoid bitch to her fate.

Lorna peered through the doors to the hall and closed her eyes stepping back “There are about thirty of those things in there” She hissed “And they are eating Jon and others.”

“Yeah” Scott agreed “But that means everyone else is upstairs or in the cellar”

“We’ll have to go up the back way” Lorna told them and all three hurried out the front and round to the side door,

They came up the stairs made sure it was clear then Lorna opened the staff door and they all pelted up the stairs. The staff room was empty so were the cloak rooms, then Scott saw them, Gemma was waving madly at them both and pointing to the managers office.

Scott followed the two girls, his cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth and his pistol raised. They got to the managers office and both Lorna and Jax pulled a disgusted face as they watched the manageress Lynn Butterworth giving Paul, the deputy manager a blow job, only what was coming out of his dick crawled and squirmed.

Scott covered his mouth as if he was going to be sick and the two women looked at each other.

“I heard of sleeping with the boss but this is a little too ridiculous!”

“Told you she was a tart” Lorna said loudly enough for the two zombies to hear.

“Pfft” Jax agreed “Both sleeping their way up the ladder, how thoroughly modern of them!”

“I mean its not as if he is even good looking” Lorna casually said.

Scott was looking at them both as if he thought they had both gone totally insane; this was not the time or the place for casual conversations or Mickey taking. His boss was a fucking zombie and both of them were getting up and there these two were talking like it was an everyday occurrence.

“Err” he started and pointed.

“Oh look he’s ripped her boobs off, well she won’t be puffing out her chest to the area manager anymore” Jax rested the sub-machine gun she had nabbed from an overturned Army vehicle on the way down, on her shoulder. “What a shame couldn’t have happened to a nicer person”

“Oh look is that Lindsey’s legs there…see told you she was a slag!”

A third body rose up and started making their way towards them the two friends grinned at each other and then turned to face the moaning zombies.

“This is for the shit you put me through” Lorna snarled and shot Lindsey straight between the eyes “and this is cause you are slimy” She then shot Paul in the head.

Jax raised the SMG mindful of her bruised shoulder and sighted Lynne’s head that still had maggots writhing from her mouth.

“Smile you fucking bitch!” She muttered and pulled the trigger, her head exploded outwards and the southerner lowered her weapon “There, much prettier now miss I am so good looking!” She kicked the woman’s legs to make sure she was dead “won’t be spreading that too far now will you. Slag!”

Scott looked incredulously at them “How can you two have a conversation like that when they could have eaten us!”

“It’s just the way we are Scotland” Lorna tapped his cheek affectionately.

“You call me crazy!” He shook his head “I am not the one discussing them like it’s just a change in the weather”

“Ahh gottta make some humour out of it Scotty boy” Jax gave him a peck on the cheek then pointed the gun at the door lock to the area managers and directors part of the building and fired at it.

Lorna was first through the door and in a rare show of sisterly affection both her and Gemma hugged and cried for a moment or two. Jax let Scott go through and stood guard down the corridor.

She had left under a cloud from here and she really did not want to intrude on what was happening here. She was grabbed by Gemma and hugged.

“Good to see you too Gem” She breathed then looked at Lorna “We are gonna need to steal a coach, I think its time we got the fuck out of York”

“Wait what about my mum and dad!” Lorna looked at Gemma who shook her head.

“Jon took me there and they were already chomping through the neighbourhood, Matt and Scott were there with them” Lorna swore and clenched her fists “Jon got bit as we got back into the car and he told me to get upstairs but by then it was too late for him”

“Where’s Mo?” Scott asked and went down to the cash office

“No Scott!” Darren yelled, “We can’t go in there!”

Scott held his fob up and opened the door to have a zombiefied Maureen and Dave leap on him.

“Oh Shit!” Jax pushed everyone back as other managers came out from the door that Darren had kept shut.

As her and Lorna barricaded the doors again they saw Scott, tears falling from his face look at them and try to reach for them, then as one of the Zombies, they weren’t sure who bit into his neck blood spurted from his mouth.

Both the women rested their heads on the glass and whispered an apology and a good bye to their friend and then took off after the others.

 

Jan heard the car screech into the drive and a familiar voice yell for her mum. She opened the door and beckoned them all in quickly and Carla, as soon as she saw Abbey and Steven bounded for them her tail wagging and crying.

Jan shut the door quickly as the commotion brought some unwanted attention but Ben and Steve with Naomi sitting in her room with rifles soon sorted that out, a sort of sick sense of humour had descended upon them and they were making a game out of it. She supposed it was the only way they could their sanity but it was weird hearing them all saying things like

“Mine is a thousand points”

“Nope mine is a million eye shot”

“Is my mum here?” Ellie asked after hugging Jan

“She’s gone with some friends to Mecca to see if Lorna’s sister is alive” Jan explained and looked at Jordan “Wow don’t you look like your mum”

He shrugged and stroked Carla when Abbey and Steven asked if their mum was ok he shook his head and left it at that. They really didn’t need anyone telling them anymore then that.

 

Daren saw the coach first and pushed everyone aside to get to it only to have a bunch of zombies fall out the vehicle on top of him and everyone else. Jax grabbed Gemma and Lorna and pushed them down the path that led to the courthouse and Clifford’s Tower.

None of them stayed around to hear the screams and pleas for mercy. There were just too many of them and besides it was not as if they could do anything without getting killed themselves and none of them wanted that one to happen.

 

They moved towards King George IV car park and there it sat. A large coach with all the trappings that long distance travel needed. They moved quickly towards the car park but the zombies were too intent on feeding on the rest of Mecca’s hapless staff but that didn’t mean they were out of the woods.

They passed several cars with bodies laying in them and once they had got to the coach Gemma and Lorna dived under it whilst Jax went to the door. She raised her SMG and counted to three then using the outside door release she moved up and in.

It was empty, there was no one there, and she called for her friends and as soon as they were in Lorna jumped in the drivers seat.

”Where to?” Lorna wanted to know.

“My place then we get the fuck out of here”

 

Ben took over the drivers seat and waited whilst everyone got aboard, thanks to Steve, him and Naomi the street was so far quiet and clear but that wouldn’t last for long. Even he was aware of that, Zombies seemed to smell fresh meat a mile off.

Ellie and Jordan quietly told their mum what had happened to Mary but she didn’t appear to be that bothered, she was just relieved that the dog and their cats were safe. She had hugged them both and that was when they had said what had happened in Clacton.

This was one of them coaches that were made for long distance travel, the sort of coach that a rock star might travel in fridges, cooking area and a bar as well as a toilet.

“Where too Jax?” Ben asked

She glanced at her son and her daughter and said “Weymouth we have to see if my dad’s managed to get out yet”

Jordan grinned a little and rested his head on his mother’s shoulder, which surprised her a lot.

“Glad you made it mum” he muttered.

“And I am glad you guys made it too” She kissed his forehead and rested her head back.

 

The coach made its way out of York, the kids didn’t watch as they saw bodies still being pulled from cars and dead animals along the roads, including the horse that had taken Abbey and Steven to safety thankfully they were asleep so they didn’t have to see the horses insides being strewn about like sausages in a market.

Every city they passed through was the same, Wakefield was a burning ruin and Leeds looked like someone had set a bomb off Jan stared as a car driver swerved in front of them and a familiar guy waved at her. She yelled for Ben to stop and Naomi got up with her as her son and daughter and grandchildren got on the coach.

Steve broke down as his granddaughter threw her arms round him and Jan guided her exhausted son and daughter to a seat with her grandson.

Jax got up and moved to the co-drivers seat as Ben pulled off again, according to Chris, Doncaster was a blood bath and there was no one left, even the army had abandoned the place.

They came through Sheffield to see a large woman with her husband they assumed shuffle towards the coach. Jax felt her jaw drop, as did Ellie and Jordy as they recognised their grandmother reach up for the coach.

“Put your foot down!” Jax hissed and Ben warned people to hang on and swerved round each of the cars. Jordy looked at his mum,

“Was that Nan?” He stared “That was Nan wasn’t it and David?”

“Yes Son” Jax muttered, “That was Denise”

“You could have put her out of her misery mum!” Ellie arched an eyebrow.

Jax put her sunglasses on and lit a cigarette “Now why would I want to kill my mother, I think she looks so much better like that, don’t you?” she grabbed a book from her holdall and put her feet up “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer woman”

Jordy smirked and opened his can of coke, Ellie tutted a little “Mother you are sick.”

Her mother glanced over the top of her book “Yes daughter dearest I do believe I am”

 

The coach drove for several hours just trying to avoid any built up areas where they might have got overwhelmed, every now and then Ben pulled onto a back road and Naomi would try the emergency channel on the onboard radio.

Eventually, once they hit the M1 the cars seemed to vanish, and they had a quiet enough drive through. Every so often they would pull over to let Carla do her business and empty the cat litter trays and re-fill them, there was no way they were letting the cats off. They’d bolt for cover as soon as they were able.

They were just outside Mansfield when Naomi yelled that she had someone on the radio. Jax listened with her and thought she heard a voice saying they were heading towards Watford.

“No mum they can’t go there” Ellie told her “Its bad there, there is no one left alive there”

Jax took the mic and spoke into it “Do not, repeat do not go to Watford, there is nothing there over”

There was a crackly silence then a voice said “Jax, that you? Its me David”

She whistled a little “Head for Northampton, the Watford gap services, head there but do not go through Watford”

“See you there, over and out”

She handed the mic back to Naomi just as a deeper voice came over the radio causing her and her children to stare at the handset as if it were possessed.

“Sounds like a plan Jacklyn, meet you there, are Ellie and Jordy with you?”

“Dad?” She whispered but before she could answer Jordy grabbed the mic

“Granddad we here, see you there love you”

“Love you too over and out”

Ben grinned a little “Nice to know there are other survivors”

“Yeah” Naomi sounded a little relieved “but the thing is where do we go from here? We can’t travel around on this for the rest of our lives”

Jax flopped in her seat “At the moment I really don’t know” She watched her son and her daughter go sit with the other kids and their friends and was very proud of them at this moment in time she was prouder then she had ever been.

She felt Carla jump up and settle beside her and stroked her ears and gradually exhaustion took over and she drifted off to sleep. Whatever the future had in store it would have to wait. They were alive and that was all that mattered right now.


End file.
